ohted

I just booked a multi-city itinerary (SFO-CLE, then IND-SFO) both non-stops. When going through the checkout process the E+ pricing for the seats I wanted were $59 and $93 respectively, and the Upgrade to F screen appeared and offered me a $249 and $199 upgrade for my flights. I was in a hurry while booking so I ignored all the upgrade screens.

When I went back a half hour later to select my E+ seats the pricing had changed to $62 and $99 for my selected seats. And the F upgrade went to $783 and $865 for each of my flights.

What is this nonsense?! You offer one price during checkout, and suddenly the prices all go up?? Anyone else see this behavior during checkout, and does the price ever go back to what I was originally offered?

For the record, my SFO-CLE was "1 ticket left at this price" for W, and now the only available seating is in V, which was $30 more than what I paid originally.

MSPeconomist

FWIW, on DL the upgrade charges to FC often decline after the ticket has been purchased.

PTahCha

Upgrade pricing varies based on whatever random algorithm they are using. they can be cheaper, or more expensive, but they are one-time offers.

If you passed on the pop-up upgrade offer, the subsequent offers being presented are really buy-up to first. You may see a lower price within 24 hours of the flight, but it's never guaranteed.

Kacee

Well presumably UA taught you the lesson it wanted to teach, namely snag the offer while it's hot.

simmang

If still within 24 hours of purchase, you could try canceling the original and repurchasing to get the upgrade offer again.

sbm12

Variable pricing. Very common in the industry for years now.

emcampbe

Well, I might ask what nonsense it is to buy a ticket in Y of you really wanted to sit in F.

There are two ways to get into F during the purchase process - the website displays discount one-way F fares next to the Y fares, and also during the buy-up process. If you saw the price you wanted in either of those cases, you should have taken one of those options - I was looking at a G fare to PHX (rare for G to be available out of CvG to anywhere, and the discount F fare was something like +$200 one way. I didn't get an offer since my purchase was on the app. They want close to $900 for the buy up now.

I didn't need to spend the extra to be in F, so I didn't. But I wouldn't have rolled the dice on seeing a lower offer after.

If you are within 24 hours of your initial purchase, book a new ticket, see if an offer comes up you like, and then get a full refund within 24 hours on your original. An extra $30 might be worth that. If you want to try and gamble again, cancel your ticket first and see if your original inventory goes back (it may or may not).

Nowhere does UA claim that buy-ups (to E+ or F) are static - they are not, and sounds like you discovered this the hard way. Sounds also to me like you were trying to gamble and see how low an F seat would go for you, and you missed the floor. Not much sympathy on my part. If you really want an F seat, it's best to do it at purchase. Otherwise, chance it if you want, but in not sure what grounds you have to complain about the offer being more than you are willing to pay.

maxinkuckee04

for e+, the seats STARTS at a certain price, but bulk heads, windows, aisle and exit row seats cost more. So you could have selected a seat that costs more.

As for the upgrade to first, yeah, i have seen that happen multiple times where the pricing is variable.

Often1

It's not in the least bit "ridiculous" and it's been that way for years. It's called dynamic pricing. The most likely explanation, although there are many, is that there was one seat available at the price combination you saw at booking and someone else snagged those seats (perhaps on two or more different reservations). When you went back later, those seats were gone and the last seat available is only available for the price differential between what you paid and full F.

The same thing could have happened with your Y seat itself. The price might have jumped had you not booked when you did.

While, as others note, you can certainly cancel and rebook, there is no guarantee that you will see the same ticket price again.

In general, if you see a good deal, the time to grab it is then and there.

ohted

This is oh so true. Work pays for the E+ seats but I will treat myself to the F seats when they're cheap. If only I had spent the extra 30 seconds to put my CC info in that box! Oh well... Bulkhead will be just fine. And I've got an extra couple hundred bucks in my pocket.

ohted

Fun fact: The E+ seats keep creeping up in price throughout the day. The bulkhead seat that was $93 at booking is now up to $115.

dmodemd

You can also have discounted F shown on the booking screen be hundreds less than upgrade pricing. e.g. I have seen it only $99 more than Y but the upgrade offered to me was $549.

PaulInTheSky

Which is actually a very good strategy to tell us never take it for granted. More power to them.

Tblack15

I haven't paid for E+ in a few years.. are they pricing it dynamically as well? I thought it was just a simple rate by route, distance and type (bulkhead aisle v non-recline middle, etc.)?

Austin787

I have seen E+ prices change, up and down, for the same seat. Example: on a recent SFO-AUS flight the aisle exit non-recline seat went from $86 to $79 and at that point I purchased.